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Re: [Phys-L] The Make-Believe World of Real-World Physics



In particular, Mazur is right that there is a treeeeemendous amount
of nonsense in typical physics classes and physics textbooks. I'm
talking about
a) some stuff that is just plain wrong,
b) some stuff that is 100 years out of date,
c) some stuff that is ludicrously impractical, for no good reason,
d) some discussions and diagrams that are confused and confusing,


I agree with this paragraph. But at the same time, it makes me
uncomfortable for the following reason. I personally think it's very hard
to write an introductory physics textbook (let's say a first edition, to
make the point extra sharp). Much much harder than probably anything else
that we physicists can write. We're experts in our research fields, and can
have fairly high confidence that when we write a research article or
monograph, it's probably going to well established. (Even if it's got
errors in it, those will be found and fixed as the research field advances.
Some errors are even very helpful in that they attract people to work on
showing what's wrong with them and what's better about some other view.)
But who can claim to be an expert in every field of physics, which is what
an intro text has to cover (more or less)? In fact, a textbook writer will
necessarily base much of his (her) writing on how he learned the stuff and
what others have written. But we all know how new misconceptions and new
views of how to teach intro physics are constantly appearing.

How easy to therefore become paralyzed into not daring to write anything!
Because most of it is going to fall into categories a to d above
eventually. Maybe not today, but maybe next year or next decade.

So for that reason I think we need to give textbook writers a big amount of
encouragement and applaud their courage and give them the benefit of the
doubt as much as possible. And praise to the heavens whatever insights and
new directions they manage to pioneer.

This is not meant to disagree with John's statements, just add another
viewpoint that often comes to my mind when I listen to criticisms of
physics teaching at PHYS-L and AAPT meetings. -Carl

--
Carl E Mungan, Assoc Prof of Physics 410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
Naval Academy Stop 9c, 572C Holloway Rd, Annapolis MD 21402-1363
mailto:mungan@usna.edu http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/